Category: Online Resource (Free)

Categories
News Online Resource (Free)

World Bank launches open access Digital Collection

A great new open access resource will allow users to access all World Development Reports since 1978.  You can read the press release below:

“A new online, open access, collection of all World Development Reports since 1978 was launched today by the World Bank. The Complete World Development Report Online, which allows users to easily access and search across these World Bank annual flagship publications, is free and open to the public and may be accessed at http://wdronline.worldbank.org

For over thirty years, the annual WDR has provided a window on development economics to a broad international readership. The report has served as one of the principal vehicles for encapsulating the World Bank’s knowledge of and policy recommendations on key global development trends. From agriculture and the environment to economic growth and international trade, the WDR has tracked theoretical and empirical findings as well as policies in the field of international development.

The robust search engine of The Complete World Development Report Online optimizes search both across and within all WDRs with the click of a button. In addition, the background papers upon which the most recent reports were drawn are also available.

A free optional individual user account allows users to take advantage of tools such as bookmarking and saving selected chapters or reports, saving searches, and taking notes. A custom eBook feature lets users select chapters from multiple reports for future reference, sharing with colleagues, or creating course packets. The custom eBooks may also be downloaded, printed, or easily shared through social networking sites. In addition, the site features quick links to World Bank open databases, RSS feeds, new content alerts, and COUNTER-compliant usage statistics for librarians.

“We are pleased to offer the custom eBook tool in The Complete World Development Report Online,“ said Carlos Rossel, Publisher of the World Bank. “We hope that by offering this new, free resource with added features, we will facilitate research and help our users more easily collect, save, and share the World Bank knowledge captured in the collection of World Development Reports.”

A bonus title, Shahid Yusuf’s Development Economics through the Decades: A Critical Look at 30 Years of the World Development Report, is also included. “The World Development Report provides a unique perspective on the evolution of thinking, policy making, and practice in the field of development. Now for the first time, those interested in development have a convenient way to access all the WDRs at the same time, in the same place, to compare how key areas in development have changed over the years,” said Yusuf.”

Categories
Online Resource (Free)

Tons of free research from IGOs

We often publicize a particular database or new publication from an intergovernmental organization and so it seems fitting to highlight just how generous many of these organizations are in terms of providing their publications/statistics/working papers for free to all comers.  Not only do they offer  high quality, scholarly work but you might also be surprised by the breadth of their interests.  Here are some prime examples:

  • Asian Development Bank: You might have guessed from the name that this organization focuses its work on developing Asian countries – but you might be surprised by just how broad the ADB’s interests are.
    • Despite the word “bank” in its name, the ADB is interested in a wide range of social topics and socio-economic topics including urban development, climate change, gender equality, HIV/AIDS, education, anti-terrorism and food security.
    • Also, the ADB is focused on the entire Asian region –  so you will find research and studies for countries as far flung as Azerbaijan, the Cook Islands, Armenia, Timor-Leste, Hong Kong and Vietnam.  For a complete list of its member countries click here
    • Print versions of its books are “for fee” but most are freely available as pdf downloads.  To access ADB publications click here and to access ADB economic research/statistics  click here.
  • UNESCO: is probably most famous for its work with protecting world heritage sites, but the organization is involved in a wide variety of other activities and interest areas including climate change, gender equality, HIV/AIDS, education, post-disaster & post-conflict response, and youth programs.
    • The best way to find all the fantastic free statistics and publications on the UNESCO site is by means of the “Themes” tab at the top of the home page.  Click on your relevant theme and a topic-based portal will open – with links to theme-related news, downloadable books, statistics/databases, teaching tools and related resources.
    • In addition to the resources that you will find in the theme portals, UNESCO also has an Institute for Statistics which offers a rich array of its statistics and statistical publications covering all of its themes.   UNESCO is particularly strong in education, gender mainstreaming, and science & technology.
  • Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO):  We have highlighted several of the FAO’s resources before, but wanted to take this opportunity to stress the broad array of its interest areas.   Of course the organization is keenly interested in agriculture, food security and sustainability, but did you know that it also works in areas including information management, gender equality, education, banking/microfinance and HIV/AIDS?
Categories
Online Resource (Free)

Free data from FAO

Unlimited free data on hunger, food and agriculture is now available from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) through its central data repository FAO-STAT.  It was previously possible to get some data for free from FAO-STAT, but larger datasets were only available through a subscription.

From the FAO Media Centre:  FAO-STAT “contains over one million data points covering 210 countries and territories” and “is an important tool in the fight to alleviate poverty, promote sustainable development and eliminate hunger….FAOSTAT includes data on agricultural and food production, usage of fertilizers and pesticides, food aid shipments, food balance sheets, forestry and fisheries production, irrigation and water use, land use, population trends, trade in agricultural products, the use of agricultural machinery, and more.

FAOSTAT can be consulted using English, French or Spanish and allows users to select and organize the statistical information into tables and charts according to their needs and to download it in Excel format. The original statistic data is supplied by individual countries and regional development organizations in standardized formats. Records go back to 1961.”

Categories
Online Resource (Free)

New UN Organization for Women

The United Nations is amalgamating four of its organizations for women into a single entity called UN Women.

“UN Women merges and will build on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system which focus exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment:

UN Women — which will be operational by January 2011 — has been created by the General Assembly to…be a dynamic and strong champion for women and girls, providing them with a powerful voice at the global, regional and local levels. It will enhance, not replace, efforts by other parts of the UN system (such as UNICEF, UNDP, and UNFPA) that continue to have responsibility to work for gender equality and women’s empowerment in their areas of expertise.”

The UN Women website is currently up and has some limited content, i.e., press releases,  facts & figures, and “key documents,” but it is not clear whether the research and publications of the merged entities will migrate to the new site in due course.  In the meantime, the sites for the merged organizations remain operational and at present all their publications are accessible.

Categories
Online Resource (Free)

Perspectives on the upcoming G20 meeting in Toronto

As you are no doubt aware, Toronto is playing host to the upcoming G20 summit June 26th and 27th.  It’s a good time, therefore, to take a look at some information sites and other resources related to the group.  Here are just a few – there are many many more out there.

  • The Government of Canada has a website devoted to the G20 and its meeting in Toronto.  On this site you can find government news, videos, Ministers’ statements, and a calendar of events.
  • The University of Toronto, through its Munk School of Global Affairs, has a G20 Information Centre with extensive links to news features; Ministers’ statements and communiques; G20 Official Documents, factsheets and newsdesk publications; and links to both U of T and external research reports.
  • OECD and the G20 is a topic page on the OECD website which provides information and links to relevant OECD reports, video clips, working papers and OECD leaders’ statements.
  • The World Bank has a blog devoted to the G20.  The posts are substantive and include World Bank or other high quality data sources where relevant.  Recent post topics include:  auto sales, poverty, protectionism, and good governance.
Categories
Online Resource (Free)

Historical Debates now available online

Great news from the Parliament of Canada today. The staff there have just launched a new website:

“dedicated to the reconstituted debates of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada.
In the early years of the new Dominion, the only account of parliamentary
debates was to be found in newspaper reports. These were saved in
scrapbooks by librarians of Parliament. As a centennial project, the
Parliament of Canada and the Library embarked on a project to reconstitute
these debates from the scrapbook accounts. As well, Senate debates
originally only available in English are being translated and published.

On this website
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/ReconstitutedDebates/index-e.asp you will
find the Senate Debates 1867-1872 in both English and French and the House
of Commons Debates also 1867-1872 in both languages. Additional years will
be included as work on them is completed.”

The debates have been scanned from the originals so you get to see all the original typeface and formatting.

Categories
News Online Resource (Free) Website

Library Journal’s Notable Government Documents for 2009

Library Journal has published their annual selection on the most pertinent government documents of the past year.

Important issues included:

Digitization – “Google launched a collaborative project to scan every U.S. government document held by the libraries of the Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago. At the project’s end, the full text of an estimated one million to 1.5 million U.S. government publications will be available through Google Book Search and the HathiTrust Digital Library“- Library Journal

Hathi Trust Digital Library is  a digital repository for the nation’s great research libraries, bringing together the diverse collections of partner institutions. It was conceived as a collaboration of the thirteen universities of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation and the University of California system to establish a repository for these universities to archive and share their digitized collections.” – Hathitrust website.

Open government – The Obama administration created an Open Government Directive – “requiring executive agencies to make their activities transparent, to enhance the public’s role in policy making, and to collaborate more extensively with one another, with state and local governments, and with private institutions”

Some of the highlighted documents include:

Investigation of Failure of the SEC To Uncover Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme. public version. by H. David Kotz. U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.

Restorative Commons: Creating Health and Well-Being Through Urban Landscapes. ed. by Lindsay Campbell & Anne Wiesen. U.S. Forest Svc., Publications Distribution.

Climate in Peril: A Popular Guide to the Latest IPCC Reports. by Alex Kirby. UN Environment Programme.

Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. UN Human Rights Council

You can view the complete list here.

Categories
News Online Resource (Free) Website

Data.gov celebrates first birthday!

Since it’s launch a year ago,  Data.gov, which has a mandate to globally democratize data,  has  undergone a makeover.  There are new opportunities to interact with the data as well as new feature such as usage statistics and apps featuring  crime statistics by neighborhood to the best towns to find a job to seeing the environmental health of your community.

“Launched in May 2009 with 47 datasets, Data.gov has been continually expanded since the inception of the Open Government Directive (OGD).  Under the OGD, published Dec. 8, 2009, executive branch agencies had 45 days to release at least three “high-value” datasets on their websites and register them with Data.gov. These datasets were to be information “not previously available online or in a downloadable format” and were to be published “online in an open format.”  On the deadline, the website held about 300 datasets in total but now boasts of a library containing more than 270,000 sets.” — OMB Watch

Some of the most viewed datasets include:

  1. Worldwide M1+ Earthquakes, Past 7 Days
  2. U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants (Greenbook)
  3. MyPyramid Food Raw Data
  4. Latest Volumes of Foreign Relations of the US
  5. OSHA Data Initiative – Establishment…

Both OMB Watch and Free Government Information have interesting posts.

Categories
Online Resource (Free)

Social Media; Anti-Spam Laws; Federal Debt: New from PIRS

MPs and Senators study, debate and vote on a variety of issues and most of them wind up impacting most of us.  Ever wondered how they do their research?  As outlined in our entry of March 22, the Parliamentary Information and Research Service (PIRS)  has researchers on staff who “obtain and analyze material, and write…research papers at the request of Senators and Members of the House of Commons.”

Those research papers are freely available from the Library of Parliament webpage and provide you with a well-researched, cited, and readable summary of issues being studied in Parliament.  Why not take advantage of this tax-payer funded service when conducting your own research?

Here are some of the latest reports:

Researching older issues?  PIRS has reports on-site from as far back as 1991, though the majority are from 2006 – 2009.  For example:

The array of topics covered by PIRS is impressive, so if you’re looking for some primary source documents or if you are looking for something from the government’s perspective you may be well-served by the documents you find on their site!

Categories
Online Resource (Free)

More Open Data projects for Canadians

Two great new sites have just launched this month that will help Canadians have easier access to Federal government data.

openparliament.ca was launched on April 12th, by Michael Mulley, a Montreal-based web designer.  It provides a simple and attractive interface from which to find data culled from the Hansard (aka, official Debates) of the House of Commons.  You can browse by MP or search by name or postal code.  The main focus of the site is to keep citizens informed about the work of parliamentarians and its most useful feature to that end is its hyperlinked list of topics under current debate.  Are you curious to know what MPs were debating about most recently? According to Mulley, who has taken his information from the April 16th Hansard, topics included:

  • ethics
  • Afghanistan
  • Fairness at the Pump
  • sealing industry
  • Canada Post
  • agriculture
  • Chile
  • the environment
  • wine industry
  • and much more!

If datasets are your thing, check out http://www.datadotgc.ca/ Launched by David Eaves on April 14th, this site provides a home to a growing list of federal government datasets.  You can see which ministries share their data and which do not and you can see how many datasets each ministry has provided.  At present the lion’s share of available data come from Natural Resources Canada, but as the open data movement grows in Canada we will likely see more content added from other departments.   Supports keyword searching and you can browse by ministry or by tags.

Spam prevention powered by Akismet